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For nearly four weeks BP’s well has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, but now the company says one of its schemes to capture that oil is actually working:

In a 7-2 ruling penned by Justice Stephen Breyer, the Supreme Court says a federal law passed by Congress to keep convicted sex offenders confined beyond the term of their prison sentences is Constitutional. The decision, however, does not foreclose the opportunity for the offenders from continuing to challenge their detention under other legal grounds.

Justice Breyer says there are sound reasons for the law adding that “The Federal Government, as custodian of its prisoners, has the constitutional power to act in order to protect nearby (and other) communities from the danger such prisoners may pose.”

Monday’s ruling falls under the Constitution’s “Necessary and Proper” Clause which Breyer offers five points of justification for upholding the law. “Taken together, these considerations lead us to conclude that the statute is a ‘necessary and proper’ means of exercising the federal authority that permits Congress to create federal criminal laws, to punish their violation, to imprison violators, to provide appropriately for those imprisoned, and to maintain the security of those who are not imprisoned but who may be affected by the federal imprisonment of others.”

The ruling does not address claims that the law violates the offenders’ rights under other Constitutional protections including the 14th Amendment’s guarantee to equal protection and due process.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissent. They contend the law goes beyond the powers given the federal government by the Constitution. “To be sure, protecting society from violent sexual offenders is certainly an important end,” Thomas writes but continues by saying “the Constitution does not vest in Congress the authority to protect society from every bad act that might befall it.”

BACKGROUNDER

Supreme Court to Review Law Targeting Sex Predators Monday, June 22, 2009 By Lee Ross

The Supreme Court announced Monday it will review a lower court’s order that struck down part of a federal law designed to keep sexual deviants locked up beyond their criminal sentences.

The Court’s decision will be welcome news to victim’s rights advocates and others who supported the 2006 law known as the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. A provision of that law allowed federal prosecutors to seek court-ordered “civil commitment” of sex offenders whose criminal sentences were about to end.

Earlier this year, a three judge appeals court panel in Richmond, Va. unanimously ruled that part of the law unconstitutional. They concluded the Constitution doesn’t allow the government to confine someone simply because it believes the person is sexually dangerous.

They said the government “has no unexhausted power to prosecute a former federal prisoner simply because he could violate [a law]; any person could violate federal law.”

In asking the Supreme Court to take the case, Solicitor General Elena Kagan defended the “important act of Congress” designed to protect Americans from people who are “sexually dangerous to others.” She argues the law is necessary and appropriate.

The primary purpose of the legislation was to create a national database of sex offenders.

“The goal of the act was to track these guys going across state lines,” says Ernie Allen President and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

That part of the law is not under scrutiny nor are the civil commitment laws of at least 20 states.

The lawyers for five men each convicted of sexually-based crimes who remain imprisoned after their sentences expired asked the Court to deny further review. They argued there are other cases that would have provided the Court a better vehicle for examining the issue.

They also contend Congress does not have the authority to “institute new proceedings that extend federal power over an individual beyond that authorized by” the original conviction.

The Court will not hear the case until after its next term starts in October. However in April, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order that keeps the men behind bars until the case is finally resolved.

They call it their “gold in the gutter” — the pennies, dollars and millions the City Council is using to paper over the massive budget deficits they created without actually reducing spending.

As the Council gets closure on its latest edition of phony budget-writing today, or perhaps Tuesday, the biggest nugget they are counting on is the $53 million in a lump sum payment from leasing 10 city-owned parking structures to a private company for 50 years.

That’s a lot less than the upwards of $150 million the mayor was looking for a year ago but you can be sure that the mayor’s and council’s vast army of P.R. spinners will put a smiley face on this back room deal that will make someone very rich even richer.

To maximize revenue, the 10 parking lots are being put up for lease as a package with the revenue earmarked for the general fund to avoid layoffs — and there in lies the problem.

The Department of Recreation and Parks like libraries and other services provided to the general public is under assault from city officials whose only goal is to protect city jobs, not public services. They already have eliminated 4,000 jobs that provide basic services through early retirement, vacant job eliminations and transfers to special funds and they want to avoid actual layoffs anyway they can.

But that isn’t proving so easy to do.

Under the City Charter, the Pershing Square lot is owned by Rec and Parks which gets all the profits from it — roughly $2 million a year now despite the city’s utterly poor management of parking facilities and its high costs for salaries and benefits which are estimated at 50 percent higher than a private operator’s, according to a consultant’s report.

Back in January, the City Administrative Office and Chief Legislative Analyst offered a detailed analysis of the parking structure proposal, including this passage on the Pershing Square issue:

Pershing Square

RAP states that Pershing Square generates approximately $2 million annually that is used to
support RAP programs, including $500,000 transferred annually to the General Fund in
support of various Citywide programs. The City Attorney has concluded that RAP is entitled to
the “net proceeds” ascribed to this asset through a concession, where “net proceeds” are
gross revenues less expenditures for operation and maintenance. To determine RAP’s proper share of the rent derived from a lease for all 10 of the parking structures, RAP and the City must estimate and agree upon the amount of the rent attributable to Pershing Square. The City Attorney has advised that various factors are relevant to this rent allocation, including, but not limited to, the historical revenue and expense numbers for all of the structures. In general, the working group believes that a private operator will generate more value from the Pershing Square garage, and this additional value should be available to support RAP operations within the funding requirements of the City Charter.

I added the emphasis because the problem lies in the determination of revenue to the parks if it’s included in the package, an issue the mayor who had demonstrated so little respect for the rule of law would like to ignore.

According to an email from the City Attorney’s Office, the mayor wants to know “why the (Rec and Parks) Board of Commissioners could not agree to receive payment from
the General Fund during the 50 year term of the lease (e.g., $2 million
per year for 50 years).”

“It was explained that monies received from revenues earned by the
department are required by Charter Section 593 (c) to be placed in the
RAP fund, and that more specifically pursuant to Charter Section 596 (a)
(5), proceeds from leasing the subsurface space for operation of a
public parking structure ‘shall be paid into the Recreation and Parks
Fund.’ The Charter is clear and does not provide a basis for the Board
or anyone else to waive its requirements. The Charter can only be
changed by an amendment approved by the voters.”

Under the Charter, Pershing Square gets specific protections because it was deeded to Rec and Parks specifically to provide funding to it. Rec and Parks also gets a piece of the city’s property tax revenue which provides most of its funding.

In theory, those funds are safe even as Rec and Parks is getting hit with a $25 million bill for water and power and reduced general fund support. But theories are cheap and city officials are looking for even more, thus the attempt to raid the Pershing Square revenue.

The City Attorney’s Office advised the mayor and others that raiding that money likely would lead to a taxpayer lawsuit.

“We also advised that the potential consequences of violating the Charter
are that an action for declaratory relief and injunction could be
brought by any taxpayer. The likely result of such a lawsuit would be
that payment to the RAP Fund would be compelled, with interest, and
attorney’s fees and costs would have to be paid by the City’s General
Fund,” the email said.

“If an arrangement that would violate the Charter is included in
the lease, the City Attorney would not be able to approve the lease. If
an arrangement that would violate the Charter is included in a public
report to the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners or any other
City body, the City Attorney would be compelled to comment on the
Charter requirements.”

So that leaves the parking deal up in the air — something City Council members are set to ignore by including the $53 million in next year’s budget.

They will undoubtedly try to get around the City Charter by allocating a portion of the $53 million to Rec and Parks but will it be a fair allocation?

Pershing Square is the most profitable city parking structure with the two that are larger — Cinerama Dome and Hollywood & Highland — both losing money hard as that might be to believe.

It is the plum in the deal. Private operators would almost certainly raise the daily rate of $15.40, even double it, and sharply cut operational costs, much as they will do to all the other lots.

City Hall has the option of continuing to operate Pershing Square and the other parking lots but that would take investment and skilled management and lower cost structures. But it wouldn’t provide all that upfront cash now in exchange for future revenue.

The city could lease Pershing Square separately, leaving the revenue stream with Rec & Parks but that wouldn’t avoid having to lay off city workers since the leasing of the nine other structures wouldn’t generate nearly as much to the general fund.

Call it the Pershing Square Dilemma, just one example of the many problems city officials are facing because they are incapable of facing the budget crisis head-on.

You’re an animal. You’re a living creature not too dissimilar from a chimpanzee—well, I guess chimps don’t wear sneakers—, and yet you constantly fight your natural instincts. Like, you’re meant to be awake, alert and on the ready, during the daytime. The moment the sun begins to set you should be winding down your day. If the sun is down, you should be down, sleeping a deep sleep and giving your body’s chemistry a chance to gear up for a new day of hunting and gathering. But no! You lie in bed late at night, staring into your brand new iPad, destroying your circadian rhythm in the process. Look out, there’s a lion behind you!

It’s not a new story, but there’s a very real danger of today’s technology destroying your ability to sleep. While it’s probably unrealistic to expect people these days to wake up at sunrise and go to bed at sunset, your reading www.somewebsite.com on your iPhone or iPad or laptop while in bed really isn’t a good idea. The deal is that your brain reacts to the amount of light that enters your eyes. When there’s low light, or no light, your brain goes, “Oh, it must be nighttime, time to shut down.” So if it’s midnight and your body is physically tired, holding an iPad (or whatever) six inches from your face will totally screw everything up. Your brain sorta freaks out: “Well, it’s late, I’ve been conscious for 15 hours, and yet there’s still an incredible amount of light coming through the eyes. Guess I need to stay awake.”

That’s not healthy.

You have alternatives! If you find yourself having difficulty falling asleep at night, try the following:

• Leave your gadgets on your dresser. You don’t need to be on Twitter while in bed (no one reads your tweets anyway).

• If you need to be “doing something” in bed, break out a book—they still make regular books, you know!—and read a few pages. The less light your lamp outputs, the better. (Electronic readers like the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble nook are fine, too, since they emit zero light.)

• Count sheep!

I don’t know if that last suggestion is legitimate or not. But really, when it’s time to go to sleep, just go to sleep already. You’re only hurting yourself when you do otherwise, bub.

Flickr’d

by Meredith Niles

Thus far the
majority of analysis of the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill has focused on the energy components of the bill,
including an extension of nuclear power, “clean coal” from carbon storage and
sequestration, and offshore drilling expansion. The bill also provides
unprecedented programs for agriculture and food systems in the U.S. and
internationally. Unfortunately, while the bill contains strong language
promoting sustainable agriculture, it also offers support for troubling agricultural
practices that have yet to significantly prove their capacity to reduce
emissions.

I was at a meeting recently where someone said, “Agriculture
is a culprit, a victim, and a solution,” which poignantly encapsulated the
challenges and promise of agriculture in the future. Agriculture is responsible for problematic
emissions—particularly methane and nitrous oxide, which
are generated by manures, livestock, and soil management, including nitrogen
additions, and are considerably more potent than carbon dioxide. Agriculture stands to
be greatly affected by climate change, from crop ranges to yields and water
allocation. Yet farmers can do more than minimize their impact.

So, what does this climate bill ultimately mean for farmers, for the role of agriculture in the climate debate, and ultimately for
reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions?

First and foremost, the K-L bill follows in the footsteps of
the Waxman-Markey legislation, passed last summer, by establishing an
agricultural and forestry offsets program. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency predicted
that such a program could provide annual net benefits to farmers as high as $18
billion—an amount that could fundamentally change the way America
farms. Yet, while these benefits
are attractive, achieving true GHG reductions must mean that legislation is
incentivizing effective and real practices.

Under the K-L bill, the offsets program is run under the
USDA with significant input from an advisory committee that could be made up of
academics, business representatives, NGOs, and government officials. Though the projects that will be
eligible for the offsets program are not officially set in stone, the bill does
outline a “minimum number of practices” which must be considered for inclusion
by the advisory committee. The list of practices is largely similar to the one revealed
in the Waxman-Markey bill last year after House Agriculture Committee Chairman Colin
Peterson added a 50-plus page markup to the bill. The full list of “potential practices” is a diverse array,
including altered tillage, cover cropping,
nitrogen fertilization efficiency, farming methods used on certified organic
farms, pasture-based livestock systems, reductions in animal management
emissions, rotational grazing,
crop rotations, and methods for increasing carbon sequestration in soils. 

One notable difference, absent from the Waxman-Markey bill
and other earlier versions of the Senate bill, is the inclusion of certified
organic agriculture practices. A variety of research has found organic
agricultural practices can increase carbon storage and decrease fossil fuel energy
requirements and GHG emissions.

The K-L bill also goes one step further than just a carbon
offset program. It establishes a “Carbon Conservation Program” designed to
encourage GHG reductions and sequestration activities for landowners and others
with grazing contracts not eligible for the offset program. The CCP does what a lot of farmers wanted:
it provides a way to reward the early adopters of beneficial practices. It will provide incentives for farmers
already practicing organic practices—or cover cropping or reduced tillage—to continue to do so. This is
vital, but also has the potential to backfire if the practices being rewarded are
not actually providing climate change benefits. 

The bill’s list includes several practices that have questionable
benefits to the climate and that could create additional environmental problems.
Featured prominently is no-till agriculture, which is widely associated with
Roundup-Ready genetically modified crops and often accompanied by increased herbicide use to control weeds in lieu of tilling. Biofuels are also weighted heavily in the
bill, even though certain kinds have been
shown not to reduce greenhouse gases. The inclusion of composting in the
bill ought to be positive, but “compost” can sometimes be a cover word for
chemical-laden sewage sludge.

Close board oversight and quality methodologies will be
crucial to verifying that any practices promoted by an offset program actually
have the science to back up their measurable net reductions in GHG
emissions. If a practice such as no-till
agriculture reduces carbon dioxide emissions by limiting the number of tractor
passes on a field, but simultaneously increases emissions of nitrous oxide—a
greenhouse gas 300 times as strong as carbon dioxide—and use of herbicides, the
overall benefit to the climate could be nil or worse. Technical assistance and outreach for farmers and landowners
will also be incredibly important, but thus far, little research exists to
understand the types of farms and farmers willing and able to participate in offset
initiatives.

A climate bill that establishes a carbon offset program in
agriculture and forestry is only going to be effective if those offsets are
legitimate and if they are accompanied by strong efforts in other sectors. Unfortunately,
the offshore drilling, expansion of carbon sequestration and storage practices,
and nuclear power touted in the K-L bill not only have questionable benefits
for reducing GHG emissions, but carry serious environmental risks such as has
been clearly demonstrated by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Agriculture can and
should be part of the solution by reducing its own emissions and sequestering
carbon with proven techniques, but it’s not the only solution, and it cannot
stand alone in a climate bill that falls so short of true environmental
progress.

 

Related Links:

American PRIDE Alternative to Lieberman-Kerry Climate bill -short executive summary

Climate Change: Four Futures

Solid at the core: the integrity of the emission limits in the American Power Act

I thought I’d better get a note on the blog about why you haven’t heard from me the last week. So here goes…

Just over 10 years ago, I had a sheet of concrete land on me, breaking two vertebrae in the lumbar region of my back. To this day, and only now and then, a wild nerve in the area will get itself pinched somehow, and I’ll go into agony. It doesn’t happen often, so I don’t much think about it. However, as some of you folks have noticed I’m sure, I’ve gotten back into the retail genealogy guidebook business in a rather big way. In the process, I’ve been carrying too many large and heavy boxes full of books – and about a week ago, that little nerve in my back seems to have had enough. So whenever I move – but just when I move, mind you, my back hurts…

So I haven’t gotten a lot done the last week…

Today we finish setting up in the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel and will sell books for the next two days. Dale and Patty will be doing most of the work. I’ll supervise. We will be open there today from about noon until 9:30 pm and tomorrow with the same hours.

Via Prison Planet.com » Prison Planet

Sophie Tedmanson
London Times
May 17, 2010

The Australian founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks had his passport confiscated by police when he arrived in Melbourne last week.

Julian Assange, who does not have an official home base and travels every six weeks, told the Australian current affairs program Dateline that immigration officials had said his passport was going to be cancelled because it was looking worn.

However he then received a letter from the Australian Communication Minister Steven Conroy’s office stating that the recent disclosure on Wikileaks of a blacklist of websites the Australian government is preparing to ban had been referred to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Last year Wikileaks published a confidential list of websites that the Australian government is preparing to ban under a proposed internet filter – which in turn caused the whistleblower site to be placed on that list.

Full article here

With the Tea Parties on Main Street and pitchforks on Wall Street, it seems to be a populist moment. But if you look at US policy, Washington appears to be moving toward more consolidation and centralization.

That’s Ross Douthat’s argument in this elegant and thought-provoking op-ed for the New York Times. The broader theory is right on: governments often respond to crises by giving themselves more power. For example, the Great Depression was a bank run epidemic followed by economic collapse and widespread poverty. Respectively, those emergencies gave FDR grounds to create the FDIC, the alphabet soup agencies, and Social Security.

It’s the same in 2010. The Great Recession nearly brought down the financial sector and hurt home sales, and those emergencies gave Bush/Obama grounds to create TARP, pursue financial regulation and provide significant support for housing through credits and Federal Reserve relief efforts.

But Douthat also claims that these fixes make us more vulnerable to future crises:

The C.I.A. and F.B.I. didn’t stop 9/11, so now we have the Department
of Homeland Security. Decades of government subsidies for homebuyers
helped create the housing crash, so now the government is subsidizing
the auto industry, the green-energy industry, the health care sector
…

Maybe the problem with the bold sentence is merely parallelism, but is Douthat really suggesting that cap-and-trade, green energy subsidies and health care reform are responses to the housing crash the same way DHS was a response to 9/11? That can’t be right. Elected Democrats would probably pursued those policies with 5% unemployment. What’s more, our energy industry and health care sector are already heavily subsidized for reasons that have less to do with the crisis-consolidation cycle, and more to do with people liking cheap gas and affordable health care. He goes on:

But their fixes tend to make the system even more complex and
centralized, and more vulnerable to the next national-security
surprise, the next natural disaster, the next economic crisis.

This sentence is where the trouble creeps in. Are we more vulnerable to national-security attacks in May, 2010, than in August, 2001, because of the Department of Homeland Security? That’s a pretty controversial claim, if he’s making it. Is the next natural disaster more likely with greater government control over energy policy and regulations? The BP oil spill was partially permitted by lax regulation under the Bush administration rather than centralized government.

In the last economic crisis, I won’t pretend that the government’s role in federal housing policy didn’t implicitly permit the housing bubble, encourage massive leverage at Fannie/Freddie and foster an era of too-cheap credit. But how is the growing centralization of government making the economic system more vulnerable to economic crises over time? The boom-bust cycle of the more decentralized 1800s and early 1900s was significantly more volatile than the relative moderation of the last 30 years. In fact the shadow banking industry, ground-zero of the financial crisis, enjoyed a heyday of de-regulation in the decade before its catastrophe.

To sum up, Douthat is right about noting the crisis-consolidation cycle. But I’m interested in reading more about why he thinks consolidation inherently makes us more vulnerable to the crises it’s designed to mitigate.

Great Depression – New York Times – Health care – United State – National security

by Agence France-Presse

NEW ORLEANS, La. – The tube inserted by BP into a ruptured oil pipe is sucking up about one-fifth of the crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, a top company official said Monday.

BP’s Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told CNN that about 1,000 barrels of oil per day are being suctioned up by the tube, out of about 5,000 barrels that the company believes is gushing out daily.

“I’m really pleased we’ve had success now. We’ve actually had what we call this rise insertion tube working more than 24 hours now,” he told CNN. “This morning we were producing over 1,000 barrels of oil into the drill ship. So it’s good progress.”

Suttles acknowledged that most of the oil continues to spill into the open Gulf waters, but said he hoped to be able over time to increase the ratio of captured oil.

“This doesn’t capture all of it. There’s still oil coming out. But what we hope to do over the next 24 hours is continue to raise the rate, increase the rate coming out of that insertion tube and capture more and more of the flow,” Suttles said.

The tube insertion was the first tangible sign of success in more than three weeks of efforts to prevent at least 210,000 gallons of oil from spewing unabated into the sea each day and feeding a massive slick off the coast of Louisiana.

The four-inch-diameter tube was inserted into the 21-inch leaking pipe using undersea robots over the weekend and finally managed to begin siphoning oil after some early glitches.

BP estimates that 5,000 barrels of oil each day are gushing into the Gulf, but independent experts have said that the amount could be as much as 10 times higher.

The bigger estimate, if accurate, would mean that the tube has only managed to corral a small fraction of the oil flowing into the Gulf, rather than the 20 percent that BP officials suggest is being siphoned off.

Company officials also are weighing the possibility of drilling a relief well that would divert the flow and allow the well to be permanently sealed, but it was not expected to be ready until August.

Related Links:

The real trouble from the oil spill is brewing deep under the sea

MMS goes under the spotlight

Oil now threatening Gulf’s cradles of biodiversity, its reefs

[JURIST] A Chinese appeals court on Monday upheld the convictions of three Chinese citizens convicted in March [JURIST report] of receiving bribes and stealing commercial secrets while employed by Australian mining company Rio Tinto [corporate website]. The men, Wang Yong, Ge Minqiang, and Liu Caikui, were sentenced to between seven and 14 years in prison for accepting around USD $13.5 million in bribes and using “improper means” to gain secret commercial information that gave the company an advantage when bargaining with China over the importation of steel. The Shanghai Higher People’s Court affirmed [Xinhua report] the lower court’s findings, holding that the procedures followed were proper and the convictions and sentences appropriate. A fourth man, Australian national Stern Hu, was also convicted of the same charges as his Chinese colleagues, but he chose not to appeal. In addition to serving prison time, the court indicated the men will be expected to turn over any money that was received illegally.

The men were initially accused last July [JURIST report] of stealing state secrets [JURIST news archive] during stalled iron ore price negotiations. China’s state secrets law has frequently been criticized for the breadth of action which falls under the doctrine. Last month, the Chinese government revised [JURIST report] its sweeping state secrets law to require Internet and telecommunications companies to inform on customers who share state secrets. In November 2009, rights activist Huang Qi was sentenced to three years in prison [JURIST report] for violating the state secrets law when he discussed how some schools collapsed after the Sichuan province earthquake [BBC backgrounder] in 2008 because of shoddy construction. In June 2007, Human Rights in China [advocacy website] said that the state secrets system in China gives the government virtually complete power to halt the free flow of information [JURIST report], “undermining healthy governance and rule of law.”

Fuel Cells 2000 has put out an 89-page PDF report called “2010 State of the States: Fuel Cells in America” that is worth reading if you’re a hydrogen supporter. The report talks about how each of the 50 U. S. states plus Washington DC are advancing hydrogen and fuel cell development in their individual states.

The Fuel Cells 2000 report gives credit to the top 5 states in 2009 that are advancing hydrogen and fuel cells being California, Connecticut, New York, Ohio and South Carolina.

According to the state-by-state analysis the most development is being conducted on the West Coast and East Coast with the Midwest lagging somewhat. In fact, the only state that has made and is making a zero effort in regard zero emissions hydrogen technology is Kansas. I suppose they plan on using prairie dogs on treadmills at their future clean energy policy?

Anyway, in the recent past I’ve talked about the building of an East Coast Hydrogen Highway and this vision is supported by the states on the east that are currently using hydrogen fuel cell technology and have state incentives to continue to do so. Even small population states such as Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maryland and Delaware are doing their part.

Continuing down the coast, New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina (a hotbed of hydrogen development) and Florida are also all doing their part. This means that an East Coast Hydrogen Highway is less of a possibility and more of a probability.

But, besides the East and West Coasts (and shunning Kansas for a second) there are a few other Midwestern states that must be given their due including Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota. Ohio is a hotbed of hydrogen development right now. So far Ohio has created 295 fuel cell jobs with an average pay scale of $61,651.

Now, this many not sound like many jobs, but the U. S. Department of Energy estimates by the year 2035, more than 361,000 to 675,000 U. S. jobs will be created by the hydrogen fuel cell industry.

The perception has been that in the U. S., hydrogen and fuel cells are mainly a West Coast thing with a few states on the East coast thrown into the mix. The reality, however (outside of the tag-a-long Kansas) is that all U. S. states are growing their hydrogen economies. The naysayers say that hydrogen and fuel cells are just a pipe dream and I say hydrogen and fuel cells are a pipeline to a clean energy future that is just around the corner.

En las últimas horas, Volkswagen ha decidido entregar un informe un poco más amplio de cómo funciona y cómo será el próximo Golf Blue-e-Motion que será lanzado más o menos al mismo tiempo que versiones eléctricas de los Touareg, Passat y Jetta, junto con el Lavida en China y tres versiones más de los Golf, Jetta y Passat híbridos. La idea es tener cubiertos todos los frentes posibles para el año 2018 y aprovechar varios incentivos de los gobiernos europeos en la compra de coches alternativos.

Ya sabíamos que estará impulsado por motores eléctricos de unos 115 caballos, alimentados por baterías de litio que almacenan 26,5 Kwh. Según Volkswagen, el Golf eléctrico dará un rango de unos 150 kilómetros, suficiente para la mayoría de los conductores alemanes, que no recorren diariamente más de 20 klómetros de media, según estadísticas.

La velocidad máxima está fijada en 140 km/h, pero el consumo se verá penalizado cuanto más pesado sea nuestro pie derecho. En los instantes en que soltemos el acelerador, el coche tendrá la capacidad de desconectar el tren motriz para reducir la resistencia mecánica y así ahorrar mucha energía de las baterías. Durante esos momentos, las baterías se podrán ir recargando kinéticamente.

El sistema eléctrico, que agrupa a lo que sería motor y transmisión está agrupado de una manera muy compacta y estará ubicado al frente, es decir donde iría un motor convencional de gasolina. El grupo motor eléctrico funciona en conjunción con un convertidor de voltaje de 12 voltios y el módulo de carga, que le agrega al coche un peso suplementario de 205 kilos, junto con el paquete de baterías. El peso del coche sería de unos 1.545 kilos en total, más pesado que un Golf diesel.

Los planes a gran escala de este Golf comenzarán el año que viene, con unas 500 unidades que comenzarán a ser probadas en calles y caminos de Europa. De la experiencia del uso en condiciones reales y en todo tipo de clima, seguramente Volkswagen tomará mejoras, propuestas y soluciones para ir ampliando la eficiencia del funcionamiento de estos motores eléctricos que serán las estrellas de la marca en los próximos seis años.

Via | Autoblog Green

All that hand-wringing over California being the next Greece might not be for nothing. States are starting to report their April tax collections, and several have announced numbers far lower than expected even a few weeks ago, auguring bigger deficits and budget shortfalls for next year. The Wall Street Journal reports that collections are down 26 percent in California, 12 percent in Pennsylvania and 10 percent in Kansas. States are starting to look to the federal government — itself under pressure to reduce deficit spending — to make up the shortfall:

Kansas lawmakers are hoping the federal government will help. After the state’s April revenue missed estimates set just two weeks earlier, the legislature responded by changing the state budget to assume Congress will extend more federal support for Medicaid through the end of the year.

Increased federal spending on Medicaid…was a major component of last year’s stimulus package, and it has helped many states prop up their budgets. But it is uncertain that Congress will approve more such funding.

In some states, governors are responding to the April shortfalls on their own. Missouri’s April tax revenue decreased $13.2 million, or 3.6 percent, from the same month a year ago. State budget director Linda Luebbering ordered agencies to hold back $45 million in appropriated spending because tax collections were so far below projections.

Other states have already taken drastic measures to close budget shortfalls. For instance, in March, Arizona decided to end its state health insurance program for children, eliminating free coverage for 47,000 kids. California might end its welfare-to-work program as well as a number of child-care initiatives. And South Carolina has closed group homes for children and a program to help youths emerging from prison sentences to get jobs.

If you think the Tauntaun sleeping bag was pretty hard to beat, you are wrong. Play some Barry White, get naked, and jump onto this furry Wampa Rug. You will make your significant other and polar bears worldwide very happy. More »










People – Furry – Wampa – Oceania – United States

A little over a year ago, we discussed the idea that the ebook world needed more “piracy,” noting that the locked down nature of the Kindle actually limited a large part of what might help kick off the real ebook world. History has shown time and time again that so-called “piracy” is often a leading indicator of innovation in areas that people are interested in. But, unauthorized sharing in ebooks was still somewhat limited. Of course, some things have changed over the past year. There was the lawsuit against Scribd (which, last I heard, failed to get class action status) and then sudden totally unsubstantiated articles warning about unauthorized ebook file sharing.

Now, the latest, is the fear that with the success of the iPad in the market that it will become a popular platform for unauthorized sharing of ebooks. Apparently, author Scott Turow has recently taken over the Authors Guild, and has decided that ebook “piracy” is a “big problem” that has to be the focus. Perhaps next time the Authors Guild wants to show itself to be forward-looking and able to change with the times, it shouldn’t put a 60+ year old lawyer in charge. Just a suggestion… Rather than saying that unauthorized file sharing is such a big problem, perhaps Turow should take a look at the music industry more closely. He seems to only be superficially aware of what’s happening in that industry. Instead of recognizing that the industry wasted over a decade fighting what fans wanted, he seems to think that he can magically fight what every other industry has failed to fight. That doesn’t seem like a strategy that has a high likelihood of success.

Perhaps, instead of automatically blaming those involved in file sharing, Turow should take some time to understand why it’s happening, and look at those who have figured out interesting and unique models to provide more value for consumers who want it, rather than just focusing on the impossible task of trying to punish those whose actions the Authors Guild doesn’t like.

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Filed under: Coupe, Volkswagen

The current Volkswagen Beetle will be going out of production later this year, but VW has promised an all-new replacement by 2012. So far VW hasn’t released any teasers or sketches that indicate what the New New Beetle might look like, but we have to assume anything that retains that name will have to also have a rounded, bug-like shape. But the problem with any retro design is where do you go next?

Artist David Cardoso has created some renderings of a car that very clearly says Beetle, with its prominent wheel arches and round headlamps and greenhouse. At the same time Cardoso moves those elements forward by stretching the greenhouse and integrating those arches while ringing the headlamps with the de rigueur LED running lights. With VW’s recent jump into the electric vehicle arena, a battery powertrain would be an excellent way to set a new Beetle apart from the crowd, much as the original air-cooled boxer did. If the Beetle were to be a dedicated EV, the compact electric drive system could facilitate some improved interior packaging as well.

[Source: David Cardoso via CarScoop]

Rendered Speculation: One possibility for next-gen New Beetle originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 17 May 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When we heard that Palm was asking developers to test their apps against the new SDK, the main emphasis was on testing out PDK apps (i.e. 3D games and other native apps), as the big change is going to be that Palm will be allowing indie developers to submit PDK apps. We also heard that webOS 1.4.5 would bring the PDK and 3D gaming to the Pixi. We’ve just confirmed that with an anonymous source – 3D gaming is definitely hitting the Pixi with webOS 1.4.5.

Not every 3D game will be available on the Pixi. Firstly, there’s the smaller screen resolution to content with. Unlike regular webOS apps, most PDK apps need to be coded for a specific screen resolution and will need adjustment for the Pixi. Secondly, the Pixi does have some different OpenGL support and other hardware differences that may make some of the more intense games on webOS feel a might bit sluggish – so we’re guessing that some of them won’t make the cut.

The release should come in "several weeks."

Thanks anonymous!

Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary

Business Insider
May 17, 2010

Tomorrow Rand Paul will take a major step towards being the highest ranking “Tea Party” politician in the country.

Rand — whose father Ron Paul is well-known and beloved by money –appears to be a shoo-in to win his Primary contest in Kentucky.

Current polls have him solidly leading establishment rival Trey Grayson, who was endorsed by sitting Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell. That didn’t help much.

A quick look at his big issues should be familiar to anyone whose follow Ron Paul: Inflation, debt, sovereignty, guns, and ending bailouts.

Sandra Diaz-Twine is the only person to win Survivor twice after taking home the $1 million grand prize on Sunday night’s finale of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.

The 20th season stranded 20 veteran contestants, divided into tribes of good guys and bad guys, in Samoa.

The ruthless 34-year-old bank teller from Fayetteville, North Carolina overcame fellow villains, Parvati Shallow, 27, and sinister 37-year-old oil company owner Russell Hantz, to win the CBS reality competition and the ultimate bragging right: She’s the first person to win the title of Survivor twice.